Part - III - Anger -C1

TAEHYUNG's POV

Seven years ago...

I woke to the sound of birds and a really annoying siren from a fire department. Probably the pot heads on campus again. There was one dorm hall that always caught fire from their escapades.

I opened my eyes slowly and took in the hardwood floor. My frat house didn’t have hardwood floors.

Uh oh.

I remembered last night and squeezed my eyes shut. Shit! Namjoon’s friend Jungkook. I slept with him. That didn’t bode well. I’m going to NY soon and I don’t need some omega getting all attached.

I decided to rip off the Band-Aid sooner rather than later. I rolled from my stomach to my back then turned my head awaiting the sight of a crashed one night stand.

Instead, all I saw was the bed and a pillow. I frowned and sat up.

Poor little thing was probably out getting coffee and bagels thinking this was lasting. Thoughts of the night before went through my head, and I almost wished the same thing.

He was sexy, sweet, funny, passionate and deliciously dirty minded like me. I got up to search for my clothes. Looks like we were a little more animal than not.

They were flung everywhere. I found hid panties on the ceiling fan.

Now that’s good sex.

How the hell did that happen?

My belt was tied to his headboard and my boxers were torn where the fly was, and his pants was on the sill. I found one of his socks tied to my right wrist and smiled.

We’d gone from, this is fun sex, to one more time sex, to let’s try it this way sex, to I’ve never done that sex.

I remember him trying to tie me up, but I got impatient and broke free before tying him up. We were like a dream team in bed. He was submissive but a hell cat and I was dominant and gave him the force he wanted.

I stared at the bed and fought a little disappointment that he wasn’t there to talk about it. However, my second priority was getting out of his dorm before he got back and got emotional.

That was when the door opened. Thinking it was him, I turned around and was met with an ear-splitting scream. It was a girl.

Fuck! I was standing in the middle of his dorm butt naked.

I tried to calm her down and grabbed for a sheet on the bed to cover up. “I’m really sorry! This isn’t how it looks.”

She screamed with her eyes closed. “Get out! Get out! Oh my God a perv! Eww! Get out!”

“I’m trying!” I got my jeans over my arm but when she saw the belt tied to the headboard it didn’t look too good.

“What were you going to do to me?” she screeched.

“No, no, that was for your roommate.”

She screamed again, “Ewww!” she took the lamp by the door and threw it at me. Okay, I see where that didn’t sound right.

“I’m leaving! I wasn’t-” she got me in the eye with a shoe. She actually took off her shoe and used it as a weapon. All while screaming.

“Owe! Jeez!” I covered my eye which made me drop the sheet so she screamed louder.

“I’ll call campus police! I’ll,” she whipped her other shoe, “I have a r/ape whistle!”

She pulled it from under her shirt. I tried to go past her to get to the door but she misread that as an assault and slapped the shit out of my head, shoulder, chest and back all while blowing that freaking whistle. I had to go out the window in the buff. It was a really long walk to my frat house.

Hours later I was in class listening to a half dead professor explain stuff when I got a text from Namjoon.

“Go for pizza after class?”

I discretely texted back.

“Sure.”

As soon as class was out and I closed up my books I started walking to It’s Italy, a little pizza place right off campus. He was sitting at a table just inside drinking a soda from a jumbo cup.

I sat across from him and nodded to the drink. “You gonna eat anything?”

“Nah, I’m just thirsty.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’ll pay for it.”

“Yeah…sure? Don’t act as big brother, now.”

“it’s fine, my pocket money for the month is saved.”

Big brothers are a pain in the ass but I also just screwed his best friend’s brother so a pizza was the least I could do. He ordered us a large pie with his favourite toppings. We were talking about stupid stuff when right as it came to us the door opened and Jungkook walked in.

He looked amazing in a pink shirt and charcoal pants.

“Hey guys!” he said as he spotted us.

I panicked inside.

Was he going to tell snitch to Namjoon?

Was he going to be needy?

Why was it so hot?

Why was /he/ so hot?

Would he want to talk about it?

“Hey, Kookie.” Namjoon patted the seat next to him between us and Jungkook started our way. “I invited him, you don’t mind right?” Namjoon asked.

“No,” I over tried at indifference. “He can sit here, he’s cool, I mean what I know about him, he’s okay. I don’t mind. I don’t care. It’s cool.”

Namjoon frowned at me while he slurped from his straw. “Whatever.” He rolled his eyes.

Jungkook sat down and opened his bag. “Here,” he told Namjoon, “in case you feel sick again from last night.” he handed Namjoon a box of camomile tea.

“Thanks. You sure you aren’t mad that I didn’t pick you up?”

I started to sweat bullets.

He rubbed his arm, “heck no, you were sick, and drunk, I’d be upset if you drove.”

“Alright. So, you guys met last night.” Namjoon took a slice of pizza. “What do you think of my baby brother?”

I looked up at him for hidden looks but Jungkook just smiled as he took a slice too. “I think he’s cool. Drives a little fast though.”

I frowned and asked, “How are you this morning?”

Why wasn’t he hinting at stuff or looking at me funny?

Like he was missing me. Or he wanted to say, ‘hey the sex was awesome and I want you to claim me.’

“Great! I went and explored campus when I got up, met some teachers, looked for where my classes are,” he picked things off his pizza and Namjoon took them and ate them for him. Namjoon was taking economics classes for sophomore so they both shared it.

Strange friendship.

Was Namjoon in love with him? Did I fuck the one he loved?

“How was your…night?” I tried.

Jungkook smiled at me, but it was generic. “I slept really good. Especially since you got that hornet out of my room. They just creep me out.”

What the hell was wrong with this boy? Did he even remember having mind blowing sex?

We all three talked about stupid shit that I barely heard because I was busy wondering why he was acting normal.

Namjoon laughed and I tried to pay attention and not stare at him too much. God, he was gorgeous. Those eyes and the taste of those lips…

“Tell him,” Namjoon laughed. “Please, it’s too funny.”

“Okay, okay,” he sighed. “I love pizza,” he told me, “I could survive off it for the rest of my life. So, this one time I was super hungry and I was third wheeling between him and my brother. We went to this really shady pizza joint—”

Namjoon cut in, “they spelled ‘open,’ ‘opin,’ on their front doors. That was a sign.”

“Well yeah,” Jungkook agreed, “but you know I get adventuresome with food places. Anyway, I was so hungry I ate like a whole pizza to myself but I eat pizza with a fork.”

Namjoon let out a snicker, “see, he’s doing it now. It’s like he’s 90 inside.”

Jungkook laughed and drank from his soda, “yeah, I’m weird like that. So, I was so hungry I didn’t realize that two of the four spokes on my plastic fork were gone until the end.”

I didn’t connect the dots, so Namjoon forced the answer out around a laugh, “he ate his fork.”

“It was an accident,” Jungkook defended around a fit of giggles, “I thought it was something crunchy on the pizza.”

I laughed and sat back. Jungkook was cute. I could see him doing that. Namjoon stood up still laughing, “Running to the bathroom. I’ll be right back guys.”

We nodded and when he left, I gave him a minute to bring it up.

“Hey,” he turned to me with bright doe eyes. “Did you know that this school has an animal shelter right on the outskirts? I got a part-time job there!”

“That’s great.”

“Yeah, I like animals. I used to have—”

“Do you remember last night?”

Jungkook looked surprised I brought it up. “Yeah, of course. Why?” he picked more toppings off another slice.

“Don’t you want to talk about it?”

“Oh! I’m sorry,” he dug in his bag for something and I waited. “Here,” he offered me a twenty. “Is that enough for gas. You picked me up for Namjoon and I really appreciate it. Being stranded in the rain is no fun.”

I pushed his hand with the cash away, “I don’t want money. I want to know why you won’t talk about the sex we had.”

Jungkook bugged his eyes. “Well, it was fun. I had a blast.”

“That’s it?”

“What else is there?”

“You didn’t come back this morning.”

“Oh,” he smiled and took a bite before answering. “I figured it would make it less awkward for you if I left first.”

“Why did you leave at all?”

“You said last night ‘that it was only the one time. Just tonight.’ Remember?”

“Well, yeah I say that every time but most of them don’t mean it back.”

“Namjoon’s told me about you and how you are with your one night stands. You don’t like long term and you never, ever date. He said you’re strictly against public displays of emotion and resent the whole idea of relationships. I took note before I kissed you.”

“And you’re fine about it. No, pleading with me to do it again and no declarations of love?”

Jungkook laughed, “I think sex doesn’t always have to mean intimacy, not unless you have a bond with your partner.”

“Was last night…good for you?”

Jungkook gave me a warmer smile, like it was for only me and a queer hope inflated in my chest. “It was amazing. I’ve never been so free with someone. My body is still vibrating with your energy.”

I smiled and bit my lip. He was confusing me. Now I wanted him. “Maybe we should do it again?”

“Nah, it would ruin it. We said just the one night, and you don’t do steady.”

Was he using my line against me?

“There’s still a lot we didn’t try.” I baited.

Jungkook blushed and I loved it, “I think we should stick with what we agreed. Besides, you’re going to NY!” he whispered the last part excitedly so Namjoon wouldn’t hear.

“Yeah…I am…”

New York meant the world to me. It would kick start my life and get me out of the predictable life road. I tugged my ear, “so…you are okay with this not happening again?”

“Sure! You should stick by your convictions. Trust me, cause I suck at it.”

Awesome.

My whole body was fighting itself. That epic night couldn’t happen only once, it would be a crime.

Then I thought of something, “Oh, and you might want to tell your roommate to chill. She thought I was a r/apist.”

Jungkook covered his mouth to laugh, “oh no! I forgot about her! She didn’t mention it when I saw her before coming here. She’s great though, I really like her.”

“What’s her name?” 
 

“Hyejin. I want to introduce her to Namjoon. Maybe they can click.”

!!~~~~~!!

JUNGKOOK's POV

 PRESENT.

The next morning was brutal. I didn’t think I had ever felt this bad.

Besides the surprise text from Taehyung, my head had been squeezed in a vice grip and filled with a hundred hornets buzzing- the kind with the continuous buzzzzzzz—and my stomach threatened to upheave every time I moved or walked or talked or breathed or decided to keep living.

I crawled out of bed feeling like my mouth had been wrapped in cotton and dragged myself to a cold shower. The freezing water warred with my massive headache, but at least my body felt super-cooled.

I gingerly picked at a breakfast of sandwiches and Tylenol and washed it down with a huge glass of water, which did nothing to settle my upset stomach.

By the time I had dressed in tight fitting black pants and white blouse, I only felt just this side of death. I glanced at the shoes in my closet and promptly stripped out of everything I had put on.

It was a flats and cargo kind of day. I would not survive anything that suffocates the hell out of me but the most comfortable outfit I could manage. And since sweatpants were usually frowned upon by the administration, my beige cargo pants and a light pink sweater were going to have to cut it.

Thankfully, the weather had cooled significantly.

Seoul falls could range from muggy heat that never wanted to leave to early winters that layered the ground with snow and ice. This autumn, thankfully, fell right in the middle.

The breeze was crisp enough for light jackets and sweaters, the grass in my small front yard had begun to frost over in the mornings and the lone tree in front of my house had turned a brilliant rainbow of golds and reds.

It felt like football and Halloween and I loved every second of it.

By the time I parked my old Ford Focus in the teachers’ lot, I felt like a living, breathing human being again. Granted, a living, breathing human being with a nasty stanchy smell and a hangover headache and the kind of nausea that turned my skin green, but still. It was an improvement.

I met Mrs. Chan at the mailboxes and noticed the equally sickly hue to her complexion. She stared at her box with the kind of abject vacancy I could appreciate this morning.

“It’s going to be a long day,” I grumbled.

She jumped, startled to find me standing next to her. Eventually, her expression settled back into miserable. “Ugh?!?!” she agreed.

I offered her a grim smile. “Pinacle’s a bad idea during the week.”

She shook her head and said, “If any of those little bastards pull the fire alarm today, I will murder them.”

My eyebrows shot to my hairline and I had to press my lips together to keep from gaping at her. Mrs. Chan was somewhere around fifty years old with a greying bob and a sweet smile. I had never heard her talk like that before.

Ever.

“Can I get you a cup of coffee?” I offered tranquilly.

She held up her travel mug and wiggled it gently. “My homeroom better hope this works.”

“I think we’re all hoping it works,” I mumbled to myself as she trudged away.

I was shuffling through the various papers that had been stuffed in my box when Yoongi sidled up next to me. Our mailboxes were close together on the same column. Only Hoseok’s and Mrs. Chan’s separated us alphabetically.

When Taehyung and I married, my last name changed from Jeon to Mr. Kim Jeon. I got to upgrade from the end of the mailbox line next to Hoseok. It had been a great day for both of us.

But especially for me.

Every once in a while my best friend showed up with Starbucks and a muffin. It was obvious why we were so inseparable.

The best kind of friendships were born and bonded over Starbucks. It happened every day.

“Morning, Mr. Jeon,” he said slyly.

I loved the deepness of his voice, the leftover scratchiness of the early morning and the rumble that seemed to hit me in the gut every time he spoke.

“Morning, Mr. Min.”

I felt his sideways glance as he took in my appearance. “You lied to me last night.”

His comment caught me so off guard I dropped some of my papers. I swooped down to scoop them up and he followed, squatting just a foot away from me.

“When?” I asked.

Fear hit first.

What had I said in my drunken stupor?

Then disbelief. I didn’t remember lying. I would remember if I lied to him, even if I was drunk.

Right?

“You told me you weren’t going to be pretty this morning.” He handed me some papers he picked up. “That was clearly a lie.”

A blush crept up my neck at the same time my unhappy stomach turned unpleasantly. I didn’t know whether to be flattered or call him out for being cheesy. I settled for wrinkling my nose at him.

His eyes twinkled with humor and he read my mind. “That was lame, huh?”

“It was sweet,” I assured him. “Especially since I don’t feel pretty.”

We stood up and Yoongi looked around the quiet office. There were teachers near the coffee pot and slumped over in chairs, waiting for the morning to begin, but nobody was really interacting with anybody else.

“At least you’re not alone,” he grinned.

“Whose idea was that anyway?”

Yoongi leaned in conspiratorially, “Tim.”

“Mr. Byul?” I laughed.

“He suggested it during the fire drill.”

Well, I didn’t blame him there. Fire drills were always a nightmare to survive.

Keeping a tab on all of our kids was nearly impossible. Dongho was built right on a busy street in a hub of business activity.

Our protocol was to line up on the sidewalk as far from the building as we could, which usually turned into a giant exodus of students as they abandoned the day altogether. And there weren’t enough of us teachers to keep everyone in line.

Shouting, ‘Make good choices!’ while they walked away with their middle fingers waving proudly, never seemed to make much of an impact.

“I can see why there was such a great turnout then.” I hugged my papers to my chest and looked around the room. “Do you think today will be any easier?”

Yoongi pursed his lips and shook his head. “I wish I could say yes.”

“I wish you could too.”

He turned to me so quickly I took a step back out of surprise. “Hey, can I bring you lunch today?”

Nerves fluttered through me and I hesitated. On one hand, whatever Yoongi brought me would be better than the granola bar and banana I packed for myself.

On the other hand, I was so not feeling up to eating anything other than soda crackers. But maybe by lunch…?

“I promise it will be good,” he coaxed after my hesitation turned into awkward silence. “I owe you one anyway. For Gourmets that one time.”

“Oh yeah,” I smiled. “I forgot about that.”

“I’ll bring you something,” he declared. “You’ll love it.”

“Thank you.” I looked up and met his chocolate eyes, letting real gratitude shine through me. “Seriously, thank you. You might just save the day.”

He paused midstride and smiled disarmingly at me. “That’s the goal.”

We parted ways and I headed off to my classroom. I noticed that it was easier to face the day after our pleasant exchange. My stomach didn’t feel quite so violent and my headache had receded to a muted jackhammer.

Either the Tylenol had kicked in or Yoongi had healing powers on top of his superhero-lunch-bringing skills.

I thought about Yoongi the entire time I set up for the day. His interest in me was so unexpected. Sure, there had been mild flirting over the last couple years, but it had been harmless.

He was just a good-looking guy that liked to have fun and I had been a married for years that liked the attention. But I had never been serious, and I had never thought he was serious either.

My morning was a blur of unruly students and lectures on grammar.

When I reached third period, which was a mixture of juniors and seniors, I was thankful for a class that didn’t need to learn the basics of the English language. Even I knew my morning lectures were boring. I had been fighting yawns for hours.

Third period was my most challenging class of the day, but it turned out to be exactly what I needed. I finally woke up thanks to the livelier class and our discussion on the Scarlet Letter.

It was one of my favorite books to read and to teach, because even if I couldn’t get my students to actually read it, they all loved to share their opinions on adultery.

I mean, who didn’t?

“These people are so stupid,” Chae Yeonjun declared, punctuating his opinion by slamming his book down on his desk. “It’s just a baby. It’s not like she was a serial killer or ate people or anything.”

I tried not to smile.

Ate people? Tried and failed.

“But it’s a different time period, Yeonjun The culture back then took sex, marriage, children outside of marriage and all other sins very seriously. It was their way of life.”

“Well, it’s a stupid way of life,” he grumbled mutinously. “Leave that woman alone. She already had a kid to take care of by herself. She had enough problems. It’s not like she had food stamps.”

“That’s true,” I agreed, happy with the direction of his thoughts. “There was no system put in place to protect her from starvation or poverty.”

Yeonjun continued, shaking his head at Hester’s tragic circumstances, “Being a single mom is hard anyway, but at least my mom has help. And nobody’s making her stand in the middle of the city so they can yell bullshit at her.”

Huening Kai snickered from the other side of the classroom. “That’s because ain’t nobody wants to stare at your mom for longer than they have to. Hester was a hottie.”

Yeonjun half rose out of his seat to defend his mother’s honor. A nervous twitch pulled at my gut and I wondered if I was going to have to call for help.

“Shut your mouth, Kai,” Yeonjun hollered. “Talk about my mom like that again and we’re going to have words.”

“Alright, enough,” I demanded with my most stern teacher voice. “Kai, if you talk about another student’s mother in my class again, I’ll send you to detention.”

Yeonjun smirked proudly until I turned to him and said, “And you, Mr. Chae, if you threaten another student again, you’ll find yourself in the same place.”

Silence reigned once again so I tried to refocus them. “How do you know Hester Prynne was a hottie, Mr. Huening?” I doubted he had read his assignment so it took me by surprise that he was making judgment calls on her.

He stared at me for a long minute before finally deciding to answer. “She got the pastor to do the nasty with her, didn’t she? That was like a…a…sin or whatever. He was probably a virgin and he knew he’d go to hell for it. It takes a certain kind of woman for a man to choose hell.”

I rocked back on my heels, amazed at his insight. Kai was just as bad as Yeonjun most days, at least when he chose to come to class. Some days he was worse.

“That’s a good point,” I said quietly. “Or maybe he was just desperate? Maybe he just wanted to get laid?”

The kids laughed at me, some of them threw out crass comments and escalated the conversation beyond appropriate school discussion, but at least they were engaging.

“Nah,” Yeonjun spoke up over the raucous. “He wasn’t sleeping around. It was just her. Just this one girl.”

“So, do you think he loved her?” I prompted.

“Sure,” Yeonjun agreed. “True love. It’s not just the booty that would have made him stray from his vows. He needed something stronger than that.”

“And did she love him?”

Yeonjun nodded as if it was obvious. “I mean, her husband was a psycho, but she loved that Dimmesdale guy. She wanted to run away with him all those years later.”

I let his words settle over the class and wondered if these kids knew anything about love. How could they? I didn’t know anything about it and I was almost twice their age.

“So? What do you think about that?” I stared at them, but nobody was brave enough to answer. “Is true love enough? Was it enough for Hester and the way she was forced to live? Does it make their crimes forgivable? Does it redeem them?”

“No,” Kai announced loudly. “It just made them stupid.”

The bell rang and the kids jumped out of their seats before I could say anything more. Besides, there wasn’t really anything else to say.

I was inclined to agree with him.

“Don’t forget about your Scarlet Letter project! Now that we’ve finished the book, you need to be thinking about how you’re going to represent it to the class.” I hollered after them. “I want to hear your proposals on Monday!” They grumbled as they filed out of my room, but it didn’t bother me.

I felt like we’d made a breakthrough today. Somehow, despite my hung- over brain and my students’ usual lack of enthusiasm, we’d come together on social issues they could all relate to.

How many of them had single moms?

How many of them had been abandoned by people they loved?

Hoseok stepped into my classroom and I lunged for the trashcan. “Don’t puke!”

After a series of mumbled curse words, he collapsed in my desk chair. “Don’t say that word. God, don’t ever say that word again.”

I breathed a sigh of relief that he wasn’t going to toss his cookies all over my desk and smiled. “Did you have fun last night, Hoseok? Are you super happy we went out for hump day?”

“I want to die,” he mumbled. “Why the hell did I let you talk me into tequila shots?”

I tried not to laugh. Er, I tried not to laugh loud enough that he heard me.

“Am I interrupting?” Yoongi asked from the doorway.

I turned around and gave him a smile. “Nope, not at all. Hoseok is just dying.”

“I can see that,” he chuckled.

“Tequila,” Hoseok winced.

Yoongi turned to me with his eyebrows raised and a playful smile on his lips. “Death by tequila, not a pleasant way to go.”

“Monsieur, Yoongi, I hate you,” Hoseok grumbled.

“At least you don’t have to share your lunch with him,” Yoongi said to me.

The heavenly scent of fried foods had made its way over to me and my stomach rumbled loudly. “What did you bring me?”

“Micha’s.”

“Oh, my god. You’re truly my hero!”

He set three Styrofoam containers on my desk and opened them slowly. My mouth started watering as soon as I saw the fried, crispy lumpias and spiced tteokbokki.

“This is my ultimate hangover cure,” Yoongi explained. “Micha’s fixes everything.”

Hoseok winced, “Not everything…” Hoseok slipped out of my chair and practically collapsed on the ground. He curled up into a ball and tucked his arm under his head. “Wake me up in ten minutes.”

Yoongi and I shared a look. Then we dug into our lunch. “So this is okay?”

“I love Micha’s,” I said around a mouthful of lumpia. They were the perfect combination of crispy outside and spicy inside, like a spring roll only Filipino style.

“Tae and I used to go on the weekends when we were first married because we could get so much food for so little.”

Yoongi waited a beat before he responded. I realized I put him in an awkward conversation spot, but with his usual directness, he rolled with it. “Why did you guys stop?”

I glanced at Hoseok on the floor, but he seemed completely out of it. I didn’t know why I didn’t want him knowing I opened up to Yoongi about my divorce. It still felt weird to me and I didn’t think I wanted Hoseok to look at it like a good thing.

I wasn’t sure it was a good thing.

“Probably for the same reason we stopped doing most other things.” I reached down to fiddle with one of the sauce containers, making my fingertips sticky. That wasn’t exactly fair. “I don’t know, actually. We always had fun at Micha’s. We just stopped going. Maybe we got too busy.”

“Or maybe you stopped wanting to spend time with each other?”

I swallowed a large bite of rice and spiced meat and tried not to choke.

Was he right? Instead of feeling the pain that I should or the insecurity in the truth of his words, I felt irritated.

My first thought was, ‘What did he know about me?’

What gave him the right to make judgments on my marriage?

But I swallowed again and tried to push those thoughts away. He was just being my friend. And he probably was right.

“Maybe,” I said noncommittally. “Honestly, I’m still trying to figure out the majority of reasons our marriage didn’t work out.”

He leaned in and I felt the warmth of his body as his arm grazed mine. “You know, you don’t have to torture yourself with all the whys and why nots. This is hard enough on you.”

I looked up at him, noticing the shaved line of his jaw and the smooth skin over high cheekbones. He was wearing his glasses today and the fluorescent classroom lights glinted off his lenses, hiding his eyes from me.

“Does that work?” I asked quietly. “If I tell myself to stop analyzing everything, will I listen?”

His smile was filled with sorrow from his own past pain. “No,” he said with a gruff rasp. “But you can try. Maybe you’ll do better than me.”

We finished up our lunches over small, easy talk. Surprisingly enough, I didn’t lose my appetite.

I ate as much of my lunch as I could until my stomach felt distended and I knew I would have to fight through a food coma to teach my afternoon classes.

We woke Hoseok up and Yoongi offered to walk him to his classroom since he still looked on the verge of puking his guts and every ounce of alcohol from last night up.

Once they were gone, I had about five minutes until the bell rang, so I dug out my phone from my locked drawer and stared at the screen for two minutes. I clicked my nails against the back of it as I cradled it in my palm.

Curiosity and a masochistic sense of self-analysis buzzed through me in a way I couldn’t ignore.

Finally, I texted Taehyung, asking, I just had Micha’s for lunch today. It was so good. Why did we stop going there?

A minute later he texted back, They’d a Zombie outbreak last year. Shut up!!!

He sent back a smiley face and for another minute I thought that was the end of it. The bell rang, but I couldn’t bring myself to stand up and greet my class. I kept staring at my phone, waiting for more.

Just as students started to filter into the room, my cell vibrated in my hand, and I caught his one last text before I needed to put it away for the rest of the afternoon.

I wish we wouldn’t have stopped.

!!~~~~!!!!~~~~!!